Matt Kenseth is far from being considered a master in the drafting game, but after wins in the Daytona 500 and the October race at Talladega last season, he is now considered a threat whenever the Sprint Cup Series visits its two high-banked superspeedways.

With a little more confidence and a better outlook toward the drafting style of racing, Kenseth heads to the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway with much the same approach as he did last year.

Matt Kenseth celebrated his win last October at Talladega and looks to make it two in a row at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend. (AP Photo)

Not only did he win two restrictor-plate races in 2012, he had a chance to win and finished third in the two others.

“It's the same approach,” Kenseth said Tuesday. “You show up at the track, you go through to lead laps, put yourself in position to win.”

Kenseth will take the same approach but with a different team. Now at Joe Gibbs Racing after spending his entire Cup career at Roush Fenway Racing, Kenseth has had a successful but emotional start to 2013 in his digs.

Opening the season with an engine failure during the Daytona 500, he has won two races but his Kansas win was tarnished by his engine having a connecting rod below the minimum weight.

NASCAR blasted the team with several penalties, including the loss of 50 points, a six-week (plus the all-star race) suspension to crew chief Jason Ratcliff and the freezing of the team’s owner points for six weeks. Kenseth also can’t use the win for Chase bonus points or to count toward a wild-card berth.

JGR’s appeal is set for next Wednesday.

“I just really don't want to comment about it any more until we get through the whole appeals process and see what happens there,” Kenseth said.

“We'll take it as far as we have to in the appeals process and see what they come up with and whatever the penalty is at the end of the day, we'll have to accept that and move on and talk about it then.”

The engine will play a key role at Talladega. Four Toyota teams had engine issues during the Daytona 500, including JGR’s Kenseth and Kyle Busch.

“We had JGR cars first, second and third and led some laps there and had ourselves in a good spot,” Kenseth said about the Daytona 500.

“So hopefully going back to Talladega, our cars will have some speed in them again and we'll be able to make it 500 miles and hopefully be up front and be in that mix.”

Kenseth probably won’t know much about his car until the race itself. He believes his team and most of the others won’t practice much. It is an impound race after qualifying Saturday, which means limited adjustments to the car prior to the race Sunday.

“Most of your practice is actually during that 500 miles, figuring out where you can pass, where you can’t, trying to figure out your moves so you have it for the end of the race,” Kenseth said.

“Nobody has told me any different, but I wouldn't anticipate a whole bunch of laps in practice.”

And then the job will be make it to the end and avoid the big accident, such as the 25-car pileup on the last lap in October when Tony Stewart’s car got airborne after he tried to block Michael Waltrip for the lead.

At Daytona this year, the first race with the new “Gen-6” car, teams rode around primarily in a line until late in the race and there wasn’t an accident in the final laps.

The teams will have the same aerodynamic rules package for Talladega as they did at Daytona.

“The racing is a little different than what it was last year with this particular car,” Kenseth said.

“I think it's going to be a little bit of a learning experience for everybody. I really don't know what the race is going to be like yet but certainly the potential for a major wreck like we had there last year is always there.”

If he avoids the wreck, Kenseth said he will have something to do with a good finish but won’t have everything to do with it.

“Plate racing, I almost felt like for years and years and years was a weakness of mine, and there's a lot of days I feel like it is,” Kenseth said. “ But then last year, we had just awesome cars. We really had a shot to win all four of the plate races, which is just crazy.

“It just works in cycles. I just got real fortunate last year and really Daytona, this year, as well, how fast our car was and having equipment to be able to get up there. You can think you are or be the best plate racer in the world and have slow cars and you're not going to do anything with it. It's very car-dependent.”